Kukla's Korner Hockey

The only drawback to the play-by-play stylings of Mike (Doc) Emrick is he works with two analysts.

This is like spray painting over the Mona Lisa.

When you have a virtuoso performer (in the current world of sports broadcasting you can count them on one hand), he should fly solo, especially in a frenetic-paced sport such as hockey where radio-like play-by-play on TV is a necessity.

Emrick’s wingmen on NBC, Eddie Olczyk and Pierre McGuire, apparently are aware of this. Neither is prone to jaw-jacking. They are valuable informants who figured out hockey is one televised sport in which the play-by-play man is as much a star as the analyst.

That’s why, once the Stanley Cup Final starts rolling Wednesday night, there won’t be the usual fan backlash in both cities about the “national” announcers favoring one team. Over many moons Emrick, 67, has provided an abundance of that he calls what he sees — without embellishing.

Comments

Neutral? Maybe. But this article makes him out to be downright “artful”, a “virtuoso”, and that’s doubtful. I did hear him talk about St. Louis and I thought he handled that well, but “mesmerizing”? I might give him somewhat tactful.

And to say that his analysts don’t get in the way is just wrong. Olcyk is a homer who is fine for local broadcasts but doesn’t belong on national TV, and Emrick always seems like he’s deferring to him too. McGuire is just creepy and gushes too much, although he doesn’t say too much to get in the way except when they ask for his opinion.